Much of the attention for women’s basketball at Baton Rouge this season has focused on LSU.
And rightly so.
Under Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey, her extravagant outfits and shoes made it one of the top programs in the nation while playing to record-breaking audiences at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
At least two LSU players can rival their coach for national notoriety. Sophomore Angel Reese is “the Bayou Barbie” and also the queen of double-doubles. Flau’jae Johnson is a freshman sensation on the court and a rap sensation off the court, having appeared twice on America’s Got Talent.
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But there’s another talented team in Baton Rouge that’s joining LSU in the NCAA women’s tournament: Southern University, with a coach who’s proving to be pretty good himself.
So it was a glorious experience to see Jaguar Nation in full force during Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Spectator Party at the TJ Ribs on the South Acadian Thruway.
Southern coach Carlos Funchess said the fan support for the selection party was representative of what his team has seen throughout the year.
“Wherever we play, they always show us,” said the fourth-year head coach. “I know LSU is on the rise and they’ve done a great job as well. But our fan base has always supported us. That’s probably the most people we’ve had at games in seven years, but we’ve always had at least two or three thousand people at every game.”
The players were grateful to the fans.
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“I thank them for their support and I hope they continue to support us,” said Bourg senior Chloe Fleming, who plans to return as a graduate next season. “We make them proud in the tournament.”
The Jaguars (18-14) take on Sacred Heart University (18-13) in Fairfield, Connecticut at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Palo Alto, Calif. Both teams are seeded 16th, and the winner gets the right to play and receive Stanford on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
“It’s great to make the NCAA tournament,” said Funchess, who served as assistant to prolific coach Sandy Pugh for 14 years before taking over in 2018. “They have coaches who have been training for 28, 25 years and never make it. So it is extremely good for the young ladies to have this experience.”
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Win or lose, the tournament experience has another benefit, Funchess said.
“Going to the NCAA tournament is always a great recruiting tool. We’re going to try to ride that wave and recruit hard and try to get some really good players,” Funchess said.
The Jaguars’ journey to the big dance wasn’t easy. They played a rigged pre-conference schedule, made their way to Iowa, Iowa State, Oregon State, Texas and Oklahoma — and hosted Oregon.
Southern started the Southwestern Athletic Conference game with a mediocre 6-5 mark before things heated up. The Jaguars won nine of their last 10 games, including three games in three days at the SWAC tournament, to earn the NCAA bid. The least likely of those wins came in game two, when Southern hit an incredible three 3-pointers in the final 13 seconds to stun top-seeded Jackson State.
“I knew we had the potential to win a championship and I told them,” Funchess said. “But we had to improve some things in discipline, passing basketball, making good shots and things like that, to do a good rotation defensively. As soon as it started clicking, I knew we had a shot at winning a championship.”
As happy as I am to see the Jaguars succeed on the court, it would be nice to see more of them benefit as so many other athletes do in terms of name, image and likeness.
“We don’t have zero deals, but[Athletic Director Roman Banks]has worked extremely hard to get some money and get some attendance money as well. So that’s going to be a big hit over the next two to three years,” Funchess said. “These young ladies love to play basketball. Many of them turned down other opportunities to come to Southern University to win a championship or have the opportunity to win a championship. And I’m just happy to see that all the hard work they’ve put in has come to fruition.”
Contact Terry Robinson at [email protected]
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